Words! Words! Words! at 13 months

Emmeline's most exciting development this past month has been her growing language skills. She can say several words and is able to perform about ten signs.  To my relief, she finally signed "milk" last Thursday.  Before then when she wanted to nurse she would say "mi! mi!" and tug at my shirt (more like claw, actually).  I am so glad that she has finally learned to ask more politely when she wants to nurse. Emmeline also said her very first sentence on Sunday morning.  When she saw Chester first thing in the morning she said, "Hi, cat!".  She also mooed at a picture of a cow today...not technically a "lingual" skill but I'll take it!

Feeding her has gotten a little easier because she can tell us when she wants more, is all done or wants water.  The other day Paul said, "This is so much fun!  I actually know what she wants!".  The only problem that we are having is now that she knows words and signs, she uses them all the time even when she doesn't want or need anything.

On Sunday we went to Woodside Farm Creamery in Hockessin, DE for National Ice Cream Day. It was about 96 degrees and incredibly humid so the ice cream (albeit melty) was a definite relief from the heat.  Emmeline enjoyed eating some strawberry ice cream ("more! more!") playing in the dirt and seeing the baby calves:

Mmmm...strawberry ice cream!

Playing in the dirt (again!). The wood chips

and dirt stuck to her like glue because she 

was so sweaty and sticky.

Cute little calves.

Estella and Emmeline watching the calves together

 

Awesome Auntie Jacy

This is Emmeline's Auntie Jacy:

This July she played the role of Laurey in Oklahoma! for Grand Forks' Summer Performing Arts (SPA) program.  We were lucky enough to be there for some of the practices and one of the performances.  I have heard Jacy sing many times but am still amazed every time I hear her. When she is on stage, it is hard for me to believe that she is my baby sister.  I am stuck with awe of her talent.

Emmeline has also heard Jacy sing many times.  She has heard Jacy sing in church, in Guys and Dolls, in choir concerts, and on TV thanks to my parents who record performances that we miss.  Emmeline behaved very well at the show and during practices.  She napped a bit but was content to run up and down the side isles.  She tried her hardest to evade me so she could climb up the stairs to the stage.  I think she already very much looks up to her Auntie Jacy!

Jacy is coming to visit us in DE all by herself for about eleven days and will arrive this Friday. We have quite a bit planned while she is here but we are all very excited for our five day trip to NYC.  While we are there, Jacy and I are going to see Wicked at the Gershwin Theater.  Paul and I bought her tickets for her 16th birthday.  It is her favorite musical and knows the music inside and out but has not yet been able to see it on stage.  I can't wait to share that experience with her.

As you can see from the photographs below, she is incredibly expressive and just radiates when she is on stage.  I wish I had a sound bite to share but, alas, our camera batteries were dead.  Most of these shots I pulled off of snapfish and facebook:

Grandma encourages bad habits!

I took this video while in the back of my parent's van so please excuse the unsteadiness.  My mom and Emmeline were playing a fun game and since then, Emmeline has continued with the razzberries.  But they had so much fun, it is worth the many spit-showers I have taken over the past week:

Midwestern Adventures, Parts II, III and IV!

Dearest readers,

I apologize once again for my hiatus from Emmeline's blog.  When we are in the Midwest with our families it is just so hard to pull myself away to write.  We were just having so much fun! During the past couple weeks, Emmeline has been flourishing; learning so many new things and is turning into a serious explorer.  She is happiest when she is squatting in the dirt examining small things or running in wide open spaces.  She is saying plenty of new words and now knows about five signs (see the list to the right).  I think that this is due in part to all of the new people and places she was experiencing while in the Midwest; her little mind is like a sponge, soaking up information, words, signs, faces, expressions, and songs.

So much happened while we were away it is difficult to know where to begin.  I think I will make different posts for different things (like the experience being delayed at the airport for three days and Jacy's wonderful performance in Oklahoma!) but for now here are some highlights (just few of many) of our journey:

Emmeline squatting in the wood chips at a

park near Paul's parent's house in Lakeville, MN

Emmeline with her cousins: Brandon, Allison,

Kassandra, and Hannah

He he!  Brandon is fun!

Paul with his parents and Emmeline: they

are all wearing Twins gear because Paul, 

his dad, and our brother-in-law

 went to a Twins game!

Emmeline reading with her Aunite Jen

and cousin Hannah.  Emmeline warmed up to

Jen right away and enjoyed cuddling with her

every evening.

Discovering a Prairie Rose (North Dakota state 

flower) in my parent's backyard

Whee! On a trampoline with mommy.

Investigating a bison in East Grand Forks, MN

Posing on the steps of my grandma's house in

Grand Forks, ND. Many, many photographs

have been taken on these steps since my

grandparents moved there in the 1940s.

Enjoying the swing in my parent's backyard.

She loved the swing so much she would stand

by the back door and say "Whee!  Whee!".

Mmmmm! Reaching for the cake grandma

made to celebrate her first birthday.

Having a chat with great-grandma Alice (my

grandma)

Being silly with great-grandma Mabel (Paul's 

grandma)

In the pool with auntie Jacy

Oops!  Where did your swimsuit go, Emmeline?

Looking at the neighbor's koi pond with

Grandma

Stopping to smell the flowers with

Grandpa

One last snuggle with grandpa (sniff)

Midwestern Adventures, Part I

Emmeline, Paul and I arrived safe and sound in Minneapolis on Wednesday afternoon after two very long flights. Since Emmeline is walking, she was very squirmy on the plane and wanted to get down off our laps. I packed lots of fun toys and books for her (I even brought some of those awful sugary Gerber puffs that she likes) to keep her occupied, but those things only worked for a few minutes at a time. Thankfully she took a short nap on each flight and that the people sitting around us didn't seem to mind her busybody. Many of them actually joined in entertaining her.
Emmeline has four cousins here in Minneapolis and she has been enjoying their company immensely. Her cousin, Hannah, is about six months older than Emmeline and they are having fun imitating each other and playing with each others' toys. Emmeline still isn't sure about Paul's parents or sister but she is doing a good job warming up to them. Paul and I have been taking advantage of the extra help and have been going out for a run when Emmeline goes down for her early afternoon nap. It sure is easier to run without a baby jogger! We may even sneak out to a late movie one evening after Emmeline is asleep.
Tonight we will be celebrating Emmeline's birthday with Paul's family and also have a trip to their lake trailer tomorrow and the Como Zoo on Sunday. Then on Wednesday we are off to North Dakota to visit my family. My parents and sister Jacy are so excited they can't hardly stand it!
Signing off for now from Minnesota...

Happy First Birthday Emmeline!

The Birthday Girl

Exactly one year ago today, our dearest Emmeline Louise came into this world at 7:31am.  I woke up at 3:00am feeling some contractions.  I had been having contractions for three or four weeks, but these contractions were coming every few minutes.  I woke Paul up and he called the midwife.  She told us to get our things together and meet her at The Birth Center.  My contractions were incredibly intense and close together.  I was expecting that the early stages of labor would last for several hours and that we would spend that time at home relaxing and leisurely getting ready to go.  Well this was certainly not the case and by 4:30am I was telling Paul to run the stop lights as we drove one very long mile to The Birth Center.  Katie, the midwife on duty that night, met us there and had everything ready for us.  I was about 4 centimeters dilated when we arrived and felt like pushing about an hour after we arrived.  We had taken hypnobirthing classes which helped me relax and focus throughout labor.  We also brought about six hours worth of Enya to set a comfortable atmosphere.  I labored mostly on my hands and knees and turned over on my right side in the last 45 minutes of labor.  Paul helped the midwife "catch" Emmeline but the cord was wrapped around her neck and under her armpits so he didn't get to help as much as he would have liked.  When I reached down for Emmeline, pulling her to my chest and saw her for the first time, the first thing that I noticed was her big, alert eyes.  She looked as if she was soaking in the entire world in her first look.  She didn't even seem to squint, even though the sunlight filled the room with bright rays.  It was the most gorgeous, sunny summer morning to have a baby.  And she was absolutely perfect:

Our first look at each other, just seconds

after she was born.

Sweet little Emmy Lou

Nurse Deborah, midwife Katie, new daddy

with his baby, nurse Peggy and midwife Nicole.

Today we had Emmeline's birthday party in Bellevue Park.  I made her this special little non-dairy, low-sugar cake with banana and mango glaze.  She didn't seem that interested in it but that could have been because there was so much going on.  Most of her baby friends were able to attend and we had a beautiful day to play outside.  The forecast had called for rain but Mother Nature was smiling down on us today.  The babies played on the swings and had fun climbing over each other and playing tug-of-war with each others' toys.  Paul's cousin and her husband were able to make the party but they were our only family there as our families are in the Midwest.  Today we missed our families and they wished they could be with Emmeline, but they will see her soon.  We will be flying out to the Midwest for two weeks this upcoming Wednesday.  Despite being without our families today, Emmeline was surrounded by people who love and adore her.  We have wonderful friends and we are very grateful for them all. Thank you to all of you who made Emmeline's first birthday so special for her and for Paul and me.

Birthday smiles for mommy

"Happy 1st Birthday Pokey" cake from

Serpes Bakery.  This is what was on her

birthday cake last year; we didn't order

it until after she was already overdue.

Emmeline and her baby friends. Marysol is

sleeping in her stroller, clockwise from her 

is Estella (standing), Elisa, Sabine, Haley

and Emmeline.

Playing with one of her fun new toys

A quiet moment

Birthday parties are fun!

Visiting the "yellow room" at The Birth Center

where Emmeline was born.  We took this

picture on Thursday when we were at TBC

for our play group.

Overdue Reminiscing

As Emmeline's first birthday nears, I keep thinking about what it was like one year ago when we were waiting (and waiting and waiting) for her to arrive.  As most of you reading this blog know, Emmeline was born eight days "late."  Our due date was June 14th but she did not arrive until the 22nd.  Due dates, of course, are just best-guess estimates.  And generally most first-time moms deliver "late."  But since my mom delivered all of her four children early (I was even 10 days early), I was convinced that we, too, would deliver early or on time.  I couldn't have been more mistaken.

We invited my mom to be with us when the baby was born so she arrived in DE on June 10th. She agonized over the day to arrive because she didn't want to come too late, thereby missing the birth but she also didn't want to arrive too early and miss out on time with the baby after the birth.  Well, she ended up having plenty of time before the baby was born.  For twelve days we tried to fill up our time as much as possible.  We went to the Wilmington Italian Festival (at which a lady told me she went four weeks overdue with one of her children), shopped, did a lot of walking, went out to lunch, ate quite a bit of cheese, ice cream and fruit, and spent time with our friends.  We also finished preparing ourselves for the baby to arrive but since I had been working on the nursery all spring, there wasn't a whole lot to do.  On Emmeline's due date my mom and I actually got into a car accident.  It wasn't a big accident and we were fine but it certainly was very traumatic.  To made sure that the baby was OK, I opted for the ambulance and the maternity triage.  Since I had been contracting for a couple weeks, the doctors made me stay for 24 hours.  It was an awful 24 hours.  It was exactly the opposite of what we wanted our labor to be.  Since we had planned to deliver at The Birth Center with midwives, I did not have an OBGYN.  Because of this, I had to deal with several male doctors checking my cervix periodically.  They treated me like some sort of animal as they were cold and uninterested.  The doctors and nurses did not relay very much information to us and ignored our questions.  This is completely different from the midwives and nurses at TBC who are warm, caring, and helpful.

While in the hospital I wasn't allowed to eat or drink for 24 hours (and that is an eternity to a pregnant woman!), I was hooked up to an IV and two different monitors, I had to spend the night alone and got chastised by the nasty night nurse because the monitors shifted as I slept.  Thankfully my contractions did not get any stronger and I was allowed to go home the next day.  We were all so relieved to be out of the hospital!  That evening my mom made the best spaghetti dinner that I have ever had in my entire life.

While in the hospital, I had begun to lose my mucus plug.  I was convinced that the baby wouldn't be long.  Little did I know that she would wait another seven days!  I know that I was not very pleasant to be around as I was huge, uncomfortable, hot, grouchy, hungry, and overdue; I am sure I did a fair amount of whining.  To induce labor we walked a lot, I took black and blue cohash drops, and walked up and down stairs.  We talked to Emmeline quite a bit, too, hoping that she would get the hint.  People had all sorts of ideas about how to induce labor (see "Going Greek" post about the Ouzo).  One of my uncles even called to sing to me!  On Thursday, June 21 I had an appointment with one of our midwives.  To get labor going, she scraped the membrane around the amniotic sack.  This didn't break my water; it was just supposed to separate the sack from my uterine wall.  Apparently it is an effective, non-invasive way to kick-start labor.  And for us it was.  I went into labor at 3:00am the next morning. Stay tuned for Emmeline's birth story in a following post! 

Whoa!  We were about 39 weeks

when this picture was taken. I was

pregnant for two more weeks.

 

Paul and I at the Wilmington Italian Festival

in front of their version of the Trevi fountain.

This was one of my biggest maternity shirts but 

you can see that my belly was still hanging 

out the bottom.

On the phone with my sister Kelsey

 ("Yes, I am still pregnant..."). My mom

and I were on a walk in Brandywine Park.

This was the last picture taken of me pregnant.  It was June 19th and my mom, my friend Kate, and I were at the mall trying to kill time.  I saw this magnet at a coffee shop and thought it was appropriate for my situation.  It says: "What are you waiting for?".  While we were at the mall, several people asked me when I was due.  When I told them that I was five days overdue, they would smile nervously and slowly back away.  I guess people think of overdue pregnant ladies as a ticking time bomb.  While I was in one store, a clerk asked me if I was alone and then said "Don't have that baby in my store!".  She also told my mom that it was not a good idea to leave me alone.  I still am not sure if she thought I was going to wander away in a pregnant stupor or maybe sneeze and pop the baby out.